ELLIE BROUGHTON: Gay hustlers, bayou bohemians, forgotten socialites and ground-breaking
jazz musicians star in Close-Up's American Portraits screenings this month. Just as the US is
rocked by the suburban arrests of Russian spies, film fans have the opportunity
to watch documentaries about 'strangers' in America.

The first, Portrait of Jason (1967), Ingmar Bergman called the most fascinating
movie he had ever seen. (Make of that what you will). It's partly a profile,
partly an interview of an African-American gay hustler. Jason Holiday wears a
dapper suit with hip bug-eye spectacles, he drawls anecdotes, laughs, snaps his
fingers and rattles the ice in his tumbler. The 12-hour interview boils down to
an hour and a half''s intimate talk, where the line of privacy is drawn and
redrawn from moment to moment.

Stranded in Canton (1973 and -74) was filmed on the world's first portable camera and runs
like a home video. But its stars are not children and puppies – they are
hard-drinking Southerners who piss in the street and bite the heads off
chickens for a crowd. Blues music and carnival madness mix with everyday
details of the South's Golden Triangle. The indoor and night-time scenes get up
close and film right in the faces of its subject. But the weirdness of what is
said and done holds the viewer at arm's length. The director, photographer
William Egglestone, grew up in Memphis. The naturalism he wants, and the
patience he shows his subjects, make Stranded an avant-garde must-watch.

Next, a 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, which was recently remade as a drama starring Drew
Barrymore and Jessica Lange. Two relatives of Jackie Onassis hole up in a
tumbledown mansion in the Hamptons, outside New York. Little Edie lives with
her mother Big Edie. Eccentric – and beautifully dressed – the pair fight, make
up, sing, dance, pose and natter. They caricature the lives of American
socialites, only a matter of years after the authorities threatened to burn the
house down to get rid of the vermin. But the characters' quips and quirks make this
film an easy trip through what would otherwise be a rotten dream. This was the
Maysles Brothers' next film after Gimme Shelter (1970), about the fatality at
the Rolling Stones concert, and is as much of a cult classic as its
predecessors. Watch, if only for the outfits.

The last film in the series is Let's Get Lost (1988), the story of jazz musician Chet
Baker. The viewer is taken back to Kerouac-era California, when Baker was at
his most hip as a white West Coast trumpet player. His magnetism on-screen
makes him one of America's first screen icons. But like all the greats, his
off-screen behaviour was what defined him. At 57 years old, stuck in Europe
because of his heroin addiction, Baker looks like another person. He lost his
teeth in a fight, and his cheeks have sunken in. He can no longer perform the
music that immortalised him. Director/fan Bruce Weber meets the men and women
from his Santa Monica days, and weaves beat romance and hard drugs over a
sultry soundtrack.

Portrait of
Jason shows July 6; Stranded
July 13; Grey Gardens July 20; Let's Get Lost July 27. Every film starts at 8pm and
shows at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club on Pollard Row, E2 6NB. Tickets are
£5, or free with membership to the Close-Up Film Library on Brick Lane.